Measuring Calgary's Startup Ecosystem

Published: Wednesday, May 8th, 2019

Startup hubs, clusters, and ecosystems are more than just buzzwords, they are the engines of growth for cities to accelerate innovation. To obtain a baseline measure of Calgary’s startup ecosystem,Platform and Calgary Economic Development partnered withStartup Genometo take part in the Global the Global Startup Ecosystem Report 2019 (GSER).

The report is based on data from thousands of startup founders and research on millions of companies. It benchmarks Calgary against more than 50 startup ecosystems, in the metrics required to create a dynamic entrepreneurial environment.

The study released at theNext Web Conferencein Amsterdam, highlights the opportunities and advantages for Calgary’s startup ecosystem in the activation phase. Top findings include:

Calgary ranked in the top-five global ecosystems for connectedness

Our top sectors of strengths are cleantech (top 15 global ecosystem) and life sciences

Reasons to move to Calgary are liveability, affordability, base of talent and knowledge

The report also highlights opportunities for growth in Calgary’s startup ecosystem including software startup output, funding and valuation.

“Calgary’s position, as Canada’s headquarter city with bench strength in key industrial sectors, provides startups with the perfect environment to plug into large enterprises in feeding, powering, and moving the world,” said David Chavez, Vice President of Platform Canada.

“Part of the need for the new Economic Strategy,Calgary in the New Economy, came from rapid technological advances seen throughout industry and our city’s need to embrace this inevitable digital transformation, said Court Ellingson, Vice President Research, Calgary Economic Development. Calgary has a strong entrepreneurial ecosystem and where there are entrepreneurs, there is innovation. We believe that by continuing to nurture and fuel the momentum of this ecosystem, by working as close to startups as we do, that we are well on the way to becoming the city of choice in Canada for the world’s best entrepreneurs.”